"Immortal Beloved XXXIV..."

A shortie...

PG-13

Disclaimer: No, Joss, no...I make no claims, put that thing down!

It's all yours and ME's

Spoilers for Angel to this week...Flee at once!...

Summary: Ok, another one...Swear it's the last in the series...Can't resist it...Aftermath of "Not Fade Away..." (Oh, will the madness never end?!)

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London...Offices of the New Slayer-Watcher Council...Day after the battle at Wolfram-Hart, LA...

A long line stretched down the hall from the door labeled in large letters on the glass..."Office of the Slayer-Councilor General..."

"Buffy Summers..." in smaller print below...

Inside, Buffy sighed at the red-haired woman facing her across her desk...Whose face was set and determined...

"Willow?...You can't do this...Not now..."

"Doin' it, Slayer...It's done..." Willow eyed her friend coolly... "Yesterday was the last straw..."

"Wil...I explained it to you...Giles too...We couldn't risk..."

"Helpin' our friends?...Your ex-lovers?..." Willow stared... "The guy whom you told you loved..."

"Giles and the Council felt..."

Goddamn Giles...And Goddamn his Council... the wiccan replied coldly... "I didn't sign up here...Though in fact I never did sign up here...To turn my back on friends..."

There was a time you wouldn't have done that either, Buffy...she stared at the face across the desk...You'd've killed Giles if he tried to stop you from saving people you loved...

"But now...You've become a model Slayer...Only the mission matters, right?...Well, I got news for you, Buffy the Law...The model Slayer croaks damn fast when she has no friends around to restart her heart or channel energy from the First Slayer or resurrect her...Or wear the amulet she should have worn but let her lover take..."

Buffy blanched a second, then glared, but let it pass...The situation was getting critical...She looked out at the line of rather angry and rebellious Slayers...And dropped her voice as low as possible...

"Willow, fifty Slayers have already quit on us...If you go, hundreds of them might follow..."

"They all have your memories of William, Buf...They don't like the way you treated him and they oughta know...God...Buffy...The man got you through that horrible year, loving you to blazes and fighting with us without a soul...He won that soul back for love of you, died saving us, and after he somehow found his way back...No thanks to us, mind you...Had his hands cut off trying to help our dear psycho Dana...And you couldn't even be bothered to pick up a phone and call him in the hospital?..."

I see what you've become Slayer...And I don't wanna go that way...Not again, thanks...

"I quit..." Willow said solemnly... "If you ever need me for emergency world-saving, call me...I'll be in LA with Angel and Walthrop Associates..."

Willow...Buffy sighed, watching her leave...Hand to her head...

A knock at the door...Yes?...

Dawn entered, looking rather glum...And...Solemn...

Dawn?...Buffy stared...

"Buffy...I'm really sorry to do this to you...But..." she began...

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